FAU gets a new stadium, Greek
Life finds trouble, and Ludacris
shows up late.

|

Vol. 12 Issue 15

Rusty Smith is drafted to the
NFL and FAU’s baseball team
wins Sun Belt Conference.

First issue is free; each additional copy is 50 cents and available in the UP newsroom.

SPECIAL ISSUE

• www.upressonline.com • University Press • January 11, 2011 • 2

Letter from the editor

A new year’s tradition

university press
www.upressonline.com
January 11, 2011

We’ll get there, but it’s going to cost us
Gideon Grudo
Editor-in-Chief

special issue Editor
Mark Gibson

FAU wants to become a traditional university, and 2010 proved that the endeavor isn’t easy — or cheap.
On one hand, we finally broke ground on a nearly $70 million football stadium. On the other hand, the football team had a pretty awful 4-8 season.
We brought some pretty big names to campus, like the Dalai Lama and Ludacris. But Ludacris cost $75,000 — which came out of student fees — and then canceled his initial appearance.
FAU got a new president with a great smile and personality. But she started her
first day in what seemed to be a violation of the Sunshine Law, according to lawyers.
At the end of 2009, a hazing incident landed a student in the hospital. But
at the beginning of 2010, FAU suspended the offending fraternity for a year.
And 2011 brings with it the completion of the Innovation Village Apartments, FAU’s newest
and most expensive housing complex — it’ll cost students around $5,000 a semester to live there.
So, it’s safe to say that our tradition comes with a weighty price tag, and we the students will be covering the tab — remember our tuition was raised by 15 percent in 2010, too.

od:
No more Lockhart
WTF?!
ll stadium scheduled to open this year
WEB editor

Absolutely Ludacris

Senior
photogrpahers
Christine Capozziello
Liz Dzuro

Tylerhas
Krome
football program
had to travel on I-95 and head south to play its football
STAFF REPORTERS
auderdale. Through
hard
ART DIRECTORwork from
Ryan many
Cortes people, that will change for FAU next

n to the public
Mariam Aldhahi

Sergio N. Candido
Mark Gibson

Ludacris reschedules his
FAU concert and then
shows up two hours late

Table of Contents

night, FAUCopy
atheltic
director
DESK
CHIEF Craig Angelos and his team ﬁnalized various docuRickyinMichalski
STAFF
heir labor came
the form of a 30,000-seat
on-campus football stadium. The
photographers
n and scheduled
to
open
and
host
FAU’s
ﬁrst
home game of the 2011 season.
SPORTS EDITOR
Todd Roller
pranillo
forreceiving
at least $6
a glass. Local
for young
just $6.50
($5 on
Mondays
Panizo
Elizabeth
Whitton
too
byFranco
college
football
standards
to be
an on-campus
stadium,
draft
beer
like
Fort
Lauderdale-brewed
esdays),
and
for
as
little
as
$2
university.
Features editor
COPY EDITOR
Native
Lager
sells
leastof$4
per exis12food orhardly
drinks
directly
to
Alyssa
Cutter
Rachel
Chapnick
olivers
something
any
other college
campus
does
at for
thisattime
their
oers’
seats.stadium,”
football
said
Angelos.
ounce bottle.
Entertainment
CIRCULATION
r prices,
however,
don’t mean
Editor
MANAGER
ng
and building
an on-campus
stadium
by meeting in 2005 with then-FAU
Briana
Bramm
Chris Persaud
Room
Theaters
ruality.
processLiving
provided
many
moments of wavering faith, but Angelos believed it
lms that can’t
be seen
anywhere STAFF
SPORTS
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For asaid
listFranco
of these
down.
a way,”
Angelos.
“It was Adam
just aSheetz
matter of when.”
.livingroomtheaters.com.
senior
editor
FAU held its
groundbreaking
ceremony on Oct. 16, the second key phase of
Karla Bowsher
eThat
many
theaters,
day,mainstream
15 shovels went
into the ground, symbolizing all the work that lay
se ﬁlm reels to project scratchy
ADVISERS
Marti
Harvey
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Theaters
uses
allto lure Room
potential
students
and
athletes to plant roots in Boca Raton, the stadium
Michael Koretzky
projectors
so the
thatfootball
pictureprogram.
and
a lifeline for
Without the stadium, there was much doubt
uality
is clean
andbase
clear,
accordnd
whether
a fan
could
be built without an on-campus stadium.
ompany
Rimoch.
stabilizeCEO
[for]Diego
the football
program was an on-campus stadium,” said Angelos.
777 Glades Road
if you’d
view
the
aurse,
campus.
It justrather
really
turns
this
place
Student Union,
Room
214 into a ﬁrst-choice university.”
you
can
order
Boca
Raton,
FL 33431
isdouble-vision,
process was head
football
coach
Howard Schnellenberger. At his previous
(561) 297-2960
some alcohol. PHONE:
Living
Room
, Schnellenberger
also pushed
for an on-campus stadium, but to no avail.
ONLINE: www.upressonline.com
sthe
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of to the president and told them that I thought in
University
of Miami,
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ke
the Spanish
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his response was, ‘You’re right, coach, why

orts Highlights

Presidential
changes
4

WTF

Walking with the stars
More big
changes

6

12-13

Buildings

16

Sports
Oct. 15 marked the concert of musical artist LuRaton, and the football stahighlights
8ofbefore
at FAU,
but
theindividuals
contracts were
baseball
weren’there.
the only sports that set records and had shining momentsHaiti
in 2010. Heredacris
is a look
at some
the top
fromeven
other FAU sports:
s of his tenure

WANT
PLACE
AN AD?
nellenberger. “It’s
the TO
most
important
thing that’s happened here in football
Contact Marc Litt at (732) 991-6353
or marc@universityimpress.com

d:

PUBLISHER:
FAU Student Government
The opinions
expressed
by the in
UP Atlanta
are
Eszter Bucz broke
two school
records
while also posting NCAA provisionnot necessarily those of the student body,
g times in three
events.
She
broke
Laurence
Bensimon’s
23-year-old school record in
Student Government or the university.

Dalai
Adding insult to injury
Lama
ndividual medley
by 1.5
a fourth-place
ﬁnish in 4:15.20.
She
followed
pended
for
a seconds
yearwith
due
to hazing
incident

l

Cover photo
illustration
by
hool-record 2:00.76
in the 200-yard
individual
medley and a career-best 2:14.73 in the
James Shackelford
ststroke.

at FAU, but also the start of fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon's (SigEp) one year

Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter

signed, he canceled to attend a Fast and the Furious
movie photo shoot.
The Ludacris concert was meant to kick off the
2010 Homecoming Week. As FAU’s early onset
of excitement saw ﬂyers and posters litter campus,
Student Government had a panic attack with the
news that Ludacris was not coming.
"It's devastating and you're like, ‘Oh, my God,
what are we gonna do?' and you sulk about it and
then, an hour later, you ﬁgure it out, which is what
we did," said Alicia Keating, the adviser to Program
Board. "If we're devastated and we're like, ‘Yeah,
this really sucks, this is terrible,' then how is anyone

With seven months under her belt, Mary Jane Saunders has
been a very busy woman. Since June 7, she has been hard at
work making visits to all of FAU’s campuses.
"We must never lose sight of the fact that serving local students and communities is an essential part of our mission,"
Saunders said at her inauguration.
Here is a look at Saunders’ presidency thus far:

Timeline
March 3: Saunders is selected to be the sixth university
president by FAU’s top officials.

April 4 to 17: Saunders visits FAU for the first time and
gets acquainted with the campus.

May 26:

BIG CHANGES

Saunders’ contract is approved by the Board
of Trustees. Not only did it grant her an annual base salary of
$345,000, but it also entitled her to a brand new car of her choice,
free of charge.

June 7:

• www.upressonline.com • University Press • January 11, 2011 • 4

Saunders starts her first day on the job with a controversial closed breakfast with the Board of Trustees. Florida
statute 286.011 states that all meetings of any board like the BOT
must be public. However, trustee Ayden Maher, also the student
body president, denied that any FAU business was discussed.

Sept. 1: Saunders delivers her first State of the University
Address.

Oct. 29:

Although actively working at FAU for five months,
Saunders is officially inaugurated as FAU’s sixth president. “My
goal will always be to grow this university in a way that serves
students and generates funding to create and support top-quality
programs,” said Saunders in her inaugural address.

Oct. 30:

At the end of the homecoming game, Saunders
hands the Shula Bowl trophy to the Owls football team after they
defeat rival Florida International University 21-9.

Ŕ 51 S.E. 1st AVENUE BOCA RATON
PSCG?TAAIKHCGCP
Ŕ BOCA & FAU'S FAVORITE BAR!!! Ŕ
THE ONLY PLACE
TO WATCH ALL THE GAMES

Big changes

Living Room Theaters opens to the public
Chris Persaud
Circulation Manager

Photo by Christine Capozziello

This building is not only a movie theatre,
but a new headquarters for arts and letters.

Before Nov. 19, if you had wanted to
see a movie close to campus on a Friday
night, you’d have to go shell out at least
$8 for a ticket — and at least $3.75 for
any sort of food that isn’t candy — in
order to watch a new release.
Now for less than that, you can go to
FAU's on-campus theater, buy a ticket
and have orange cheesecake or meat
lover's pizza hand-delivered to you at
your theater seat.
Since its opening, the theater at the
Culture and Society Building has shown
movies at FAU like the prostitute-laden
Eliot Spitzer documentary Client 9 and
the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho.
The theater, operated by Portland-based

Living Room Theaters, sells tickets to
students for just $6.50 ($5 on Mondays
and Tuesdays), and delivers food or
drinks directly to moviegoers’ seats for
$2 more.
Lower prices, however, don’t mean
lower quality. Living Room Theaters
shows films that can’t be seen anywhere
else in town. For a list of these movies,
visit www.fau.livingroomtheaters.com.
Unlike many mainstream theaters,
which use film reels to project scratchy
video, Living Room Theaters uses
all-digital projectors so that picture
and sound quality is clean and clear,
according to company CEO Diego
Rimoch.
Of course, if you’d rather view the
films in double-vision, you can order
yourself some alcohol. Living Room

Theaters serves 5.5-ounce glasses
of wine like
Spanish Protocolo
Tempranillo for at least $6 a glass.
Local draft beer like Fort Lauderdalebrewed Native Lager sells for at least
$4 per 12-ounce bottle.

FAU opens its own medical school
Karla Bowsher
Senior Editor

BIG CHANGES

To learn more about the college, visit
its new website, med.fau.edu/medicine.

Photo by Elizabeth Whitton

• www.upressonline.com • University Press • January 11, 2011 • 6

After more than five years in the works,
the
Schmidt
College
of
Medicine
became FAU’s 10th college last year.
It started in 2004 as a Boca-based branch
of the University of Miami’s Miller School of
Medicine, according to an FAU representative.
Medical courses were offered on FAU’s Boca
campus, but students received their M.D. degree
from UM and paid tuition to UM, explained
College of Medicine Dean Michael Friedland.
That all changed last year, however.
Now FAU is on track to have its own
medical school up and running soon.
In January, the Board of Trustees — FAU’s
13 highest-ranking decision-makers — voted
unanimously to end the partnership with UM.
In February, they voted unanimously to open
FAU’s own independent medical school.
On May 15, Governor Charlie Crist
seconded their vote by passing a bill that
established FAU’s doctor of medicine
degree program, meaning that students
could receive an M.D. from FAU.
“It’s a game-changer for FAU,” senior
microbiology major Trevor Raborn said.
“It’s better than any stadium being built.”
In addition to an M.D., students could also

receive a dual M.D./Ph.D. degree, Friedland
said. After completing the requirements
for an M.D., students who take advantage
of this option would then earn their Ph.D.
from FAU or from the Scripps Research
Institute, located on the Jupiter campus.
First, however, the college must become
accredited. It’s currently being reviewed by
the Liaison Committee on Medical Education,
the national organization that accredits M.D.
programs in the U.S. and Canada, according
to FAU officials. They expect to hear their
status from the LCME by next month.
Although it’s too early for FAU to
announce when the medical school will
officially open, the Board of Trustees
has already decided on its price tag.
In December, they voted to charge in-state
students a total of $27,040.04 per semester.
According to the dean, that’s about $3,000
less than students used to pay UM to attend their
medical school satellite on FAU’s Boca campus.
According to the Sun Sentinel, however,
that’s a lot more than medical school at the
University of Central Florida ($23,771)
and Florida State University ($19,841).

FAU decided to make its medical school
independent from the University of Miami.

Broward County schools
o
Create tobacco-free multi-unit dwellings
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o
Create tobacco-free outdoors (i.e. Parks,
IURP$0WR$0DWWKH%URZDUG&RXQW\+HDOWK'HSDUWPHQW
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o Promote Cessation from Tobacco Use
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Membership is open to the general public and
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Please join us on the 3rd Thursday of every month
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Global impacts

Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter

Photo by Liz Dzuro

Helping Haiti
The
earthquake
that
rocked
early
2010
had
an
overwhelming
effect
on
many
FAU
students.
Months later, students were still deeply impacted by the tragedy, but members
of Konbit Kreyol, a Haitian student organization, got together immediately
following the disaster to organize a relief effort for the Haitian people.
According to FAU’s website, more than one out of 100 students is Haitian.
In fact, Konbit Kreyol is recognized as the largest student club on campus.
“It’s amazing to me,” said Konbit Kreyol Internal Vice President
Mikerlande “Mickey” Erilus in March 2010. “Just sitting here at the
[Breezeway drop-off] table having people that never knew about us bringing
us clothes and food, it really shows how much people really care about us.”
[Karla Bowsher and Stephanie Colaianni contributed to the reporting in this story.]
Photo by Stephanie Colaianni

GLOBAL IMPACTS •

On the evening of Jan. 19, more than one hundred students and alumni gathered for a
candlelight vigil in honor of both Martin Luther King Jr. Day and those affected by the
earthquake. Participants marched around the Boca campus and sang songs that included
“Amazing Grace” and the Haitian national anthem.
Photo by Stephanie Colaianni

www.upressonline.com • University Press • January 11, 2011 • 8

More than 100 people packed the Student Union’s Palmetto Palm
Room past capacity on Jan. 13, the day after the earthquake hit.
Members of Konbit Kreyol and the FAU community gathered to learn
more about the earthquake and find out how to help with relief efforts.

Former FAU student John Paul “JP” Pitts, the lead singer and guitarist of local band Surfer
Blood, helped raise $2,500 at Propaganda, a bar in Lake Worth. The bar had a benefit concert on Jan. 18, where 100 percent of the door fee and 10 percent of the bar sales went to
the organization Doctors Without Borders. (taken from story)

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Hello, Dalai
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet traveled more than
8,000 miles to make his first-ever visit to Boca Raton on Feb. 24.
More than 2,800 students — more than 10 percent of the student
body — lined up at the FAU Arena to see and hear him speak.
His Holiness spoke about the importance of world peace and

love in his lecture called "Compassion as a Pillar of World Peace."
"Genuine peace must come from inner peace. Without inner
peace, world peace is impossible," said the Dalai Lama in his speech.
Here
are
some
photos
from
the
event:
[Elizabeth Whitton contributed to the reporting in this story.]

Photo by Stephanie Colaianni

Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter

Photo by Liz Dzuro

Photo b y Todd Roller

On Feb. 24, 2010, His Holiness the
14th Dalai Lama of Tibet visited
FAU for the first time.

Board Certified Dr. Steven Caridi & Physician Assistant Emily
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NEWS

The good, the bad, the WTF?

The good:

No more Lockhart
On-campus football stadium
scheduled to open this year
Ryan Cortes
Contributor

THE GOOD, THE BADD, THE WTF

Since its inception in 2001, the FAU football
program has had to travel on I-95 and head south
to play its football games at Lockhart Stadium in
Fort Lauderdale. Through hard work from many
people, that will change for FAU next season.
On Tuesday, Nov. 23, late into the night, FAU
atheltic director Craig Angelos and his team finalized
various documents and payments, and the fruit of
their labor came in the form of a 30,000-seat oncampus football stadium. The stadium is currently
under construction and scheduled to open and
host FAU’s first home game of the 2011 season.
Though FAU’s football program is too young by
college football standards to be receiving an on-campus
stadium, Angelos was able to secure it for the university.
“That’s now going to allow us to do something
hardly any other college campus does at this
time of their existence, which is to build an
on-campus football stadium,” said Angelos.
Angelos began the process of getting and building
an on-campus stadium by meeting in 2005 with
then-FAU president Frank Brogan. The five-year
process provided many moments of wavering
faith, but Angelos believed it would happen.
“I never doubted that we would find a way,”
said Angelos. “It was just a matter of when.”
Prior to the official documentation, FAU held

its groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 16, the
second key phase of securing the stadium this
past season. That day, 15 shovels went into the
ground, symbolizing all the work that lay ahead.
Beyond being merely an attraction to lure
potential students and athletes to plant roots in
Boca Raton, the stadium served as something more
immediate: a lifeline for the football program.
Without the stadium, there was much doubt as to
the future of the football team and whether a fan
base could be built without an on-campus stadium.
“The one prize we really needed to stabilize [for]
the football program was an on-campus stadium,” said
Angelos. “There’s something that really unites a campus.
It just really turns this place into a first-choice university.”
Another key element throughout this process was head
football coach Howard Schnellenberger. At his previous
coaching stops, Louisville and Miami, Schnellenberger
also pushed for an on-campus stadium, but to no avail.
“After we were reasonably good at the University
of Miami, I went to the president and told them
that I thought in my judgment we needed a football
stadium,” said Schnellenberger. “And his response was,
‘You’re right, coach, why don’t you go build one?’”
Although the journey was arduous, Schnellenberger
met with less resistance in Boca Raton, and the football
stadium is one of his proud achievements of his tenure here.
“I think it’s a great thing,” said Schnellenberger.
“It’s the most important thing that’s happened
here in football since football came here.”

Photo courtesy of FAU

• www.upressonline.com • University Press • January 11, 2011 • 12

After many changes and speculations of wheether the stadium would open,
ground breaking finally happened the fall semester of 2010

The bad:

Adding insult to injury
FAU fraternity suspended for a
year due to hazing incident

Ludacris reschedules his FAU concert
and then shows up two hours late
Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter
Oct. 15 marked the concert of musical artist
Ludacris at FAU, but before the contracts
were even signed, he canceled to attend a
Fast and the Furious movie photo shoot.
The Ludacris concert was meant to kick off
the 2010 Homecoming Week. As FAU’s early
onset of excitement saw flyers and posters litter
campus, Student Government had a panic attack
with the news that Ludacris was not coming.
"It's devastating and you're like, ‘Oh, my God, what
are we gonna do?' and you sulk about it and then, an
hour later, you figure it out, which is what we did," said
Alicia Keating, the adviser to Program Board. "If we're
devastated and we're like, ‘Yeah, this really sucks, this

is terrible,' then how is anyone else gonna be excited?"
Despite the fact that Student Government decided
to start promoting a show that wasn’t 100-percent
set, to their surprise, ticket sales rose by nearly 100
tickets a week after the news of the rescheduling.
With the mess of rescheduling resolved, on Nov.
10, Freakers Ball finally kicked off. However,
Ludacris arrived two hours late for his scheduled
9 p.m. appearance. The concert started on a slow
note, getting passive reactions from the crowd
as several opening acts desperately tried to
delay the fact that the main event was very late.
"Despite being late,” said Student Body
President Ayden Maher, “Ludacris really knew
his audience and got people off their feet.”
[Gideon
Grudo
contributed
to
the
reporting
in
this
story.]

GOOD, THE BADD, THE WTF

Ludacris showed up two hours late to
his scheduled 9PM appearance at the
rescheduled Freakers Ball on Nov. 10th.

Absolutely Ludacris

13 • January 11, 2011 • University Press • www.upressonline.com • THE

WTF?!

Spring 2010 marked a new semester at
FAU, but also the start of fraternity Sigma
Phi Epsilon's (SigEp) one year suspension.
SigEp was given a one-year suspension for a harsh
hazing ritual that took place in November of 2009 that
sent their fraternity brother, Nicholas Letteri, to the
Boca Raton Community Hospital emergency room.
According to Letteri, he was kidnapped, tied
up, and forced to drink beer and shots by SigEp
brothers as he rapidly threw up and blacked out.
During their suspension, SigEp underwent
membership review, disciplinary probation, a chapter
reorganization plan, and monthly meetings and reports.
"We're the strongest fraternity on campus. We
have the highest grades; always number one in
intramurals; always number one in sports; we
always have the highest community service. This is
not what we expected, and it's not going to help out
anybody," said Jonathon Marquez, SigEp president,
when referring to the suspension of the fraternity.
To make a bad situation worse for FAU fraternities,

Nicholas Cady-Jantzen, a brother of the Pi Kappa Alpha
(Pike) fraternity, was caught dumping more than 900
copies of the UP's Feb. 23 issue, which featured a story
that investigated and exposed Greek Life hazing rituals.
The story exposed fraternities like SigEp, Pike, and
Sigma Alpha Mu for performing hazing acts such as
sticking hoses up people’s rears.
[Monica Ruiz contributed to the reporting of this
story.]

New engineering building
combines work and
recreation in an ecofriendly environment

Chris Persaud
Circulation Manager

Davie research center
looks to address ecological
problems in the Everglades
Chris Persaud
Circulation Manager
In November, FAU and UF
cut the ribbon for a brand-new
research facility with the goal
of restoring the Everglades back
to how it was 40 years ago.
Located at FAU’s Davie
campus, the research hub
houses FAU and UF scientists
who research the state of the
Everglades and the animals
that dwell within it.
The
research is funded in part
by the South Florida Water
Management District — a
regional government agency —
and the U.S. Geological Survey,
a federal government agency.
The restoration effort is
meant to address four ecological
problems: the introduction
of non-native plants and

animals to the region, water
pollution
from
fertilizer,
loss of wetlands from housing
developments, and changes in
the amount and distribution
of water in the Everglades.
One graduate biology student,
Bryan Botson, observes the
Everglades’
wading
bird
population as an indicator for the
status of the area. He said that if
the population decreases, then
there is a problem in the area.
According to FAU’s website,
the research building was
designed to get a silver rating
by the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design program,
a national program that rates
buildings on their energy
efficiency and environmentfriendliness. Silver is the secondlowest certification possible.
[Sergio Candido contributed
to the reporting in this story.]

Former Gawlik Lab member Garth
Herring weighs a wading bird after
catching it with a net-shooting gun.

Building for
the village
people
FAU’s Innovation Village
Chris Persaud
Circulation Manager
By August, up to 1,216 upperclassmen, grad students
and professional students will have exclusive access
to a gym and a pool, according to FAU’s website.
The gym and pool will be located in Innovation
Village Apartments, a new apartment complex
for students located on northeast part of the Boca
campus. According to Director of Housing Jill
Eckardt, each of the building’s 1,216 prospective
tenants must be upperclassmen, grad students or
professional students. Eckardt said housing costs
will be between $4,475 and $5,075 per semester —
making it the most expensive housing on campus.
Having been in the works since 2005, construction
of the complex started in April 2010 and is expected to
be complete by August 2011. The apartment complex
will consist of two residential apartment buildings.
Each apartment will have either two or four
bedrooms, with a common area and a kitchen,
according to FAU’s website. Eckardt has also
said that each bedroom will have one bed,
and each apartment will have two bathrooms.
The apartments are part of the larger Innovation
Village, which will feature a football stadium.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, there will also
be Greek housing and retail shops, but there
is no set date for construction and completion.

Students in the College of Engineering and
Computer Science can now attend classes in a
new building built to be the greenest academic
building in the state, according to www.
green.fau.edu — and they get to play a Wii.
The college’s new home includes a student
area — called the Cube — which features a Wii, a
plasma TV, computers, and private suites available
via reservation. There is also a dance floor, which
Dean Karl Stevens requested since students
wanted to get married on campus but didn’t have
a good place to do so. Beneath the dance floor is
a space for students’ bands to play or practice.
The building isn’t just student-friendly, but
environment-friendly. It consumes half the energy
of an “average” building on campus, like the S.E.
Wimberly Library, according to FAU Project Manager
E. Henry Kraft. The windows, for example, let in
sunlight but not heat, which saves on lighting and
heating costs. Solar panels provide 4 percent of the
building’s electricity, and 75-inch monitors mounted
on the building’s walls let visitors know how much
energy the building is consuming at that very moment.
According to the college’s website (eng.fau.edu),
the building was constructed in hopes of getting
platinum-level certification from the Leadership
in Environmental Energy and Design program
— a national program that rates buildings on
energy consumption and environmental impact.
Platinum is the highest level of certification.
While the building has not yet been certified,
FAU has claimed just the opposite. In November,
the UP discovered that the building was not yet
certified platinum, though claims of platinum LEED
certification were found on FAU’s web pages.

Baseball team claims conference title
FAU
baseball
claimed
claimed
its
first
Sun
Belt
Conference title in 29 years after the team was founded.
Finishing their regular season 33-20 (23-9 Sun Belt), the
Owls accomplished one of their most standout seasons ever.
Adding to the team’s national recognition, infielders Sean
Bukovich, Raymond Church and catcher Eddie Cassidy were named
to the All-Regional team — one of the highest honors for players.
Along
with
the
players,
head
coach
John
McCormack was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year.
Since 1990, FAU baseball has seen multiple players drafted and
signed to Major League Baseball, and 2010 was no disappointment.
Right-handed pitchers Mike Gipson and Ryan Burnal were
selected in this year’s Major League Baseball Player Draft. Burnal
was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 23rd round, while
Gipson was selected in the 31st round by the New York Yankees.
“I’m
happy
for
them,”
said
McCormack.
“They
worked
their
behinds
off.”
Unfortunately, FAU fell to University of Florida in the
championship game of the regional playoffs. However, the Owls
finished with 37 victories overall, which is their most wins since 2005.
“I think that we lived up to our expectations,” said McCormack.
“I think we’re in good shape for next year and 2012 too.”

Photo by Liz Dzuro

Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter

Although the Owls lost in the regional playoffs, the team won the
Sun Belt Conference title for the first time in school history.

January 11, 2011 • 18

Rusty Smith was drafted as a 3rd string
quarterback for the Tenessee Titans

Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter
It was questionable whether 2010 would be FAU’s year
to finally have a football player drafted into the NFL. The
coaches were confident that it would be quarterback Rusty
Smith, despite his injuries and inactivity that season.
On April 22, while sitting in his Jacksonville home
watching the NFL draft with his family, he received a phone
call from a strange area code. Smith’s heart began to race.
“About two minutes before it came across the TV
screen that the Titans were on the clock I got a phone
call from Tennessee and they asked me if I would like
to be a Titan,” said Smith. “I said I’d love to be a Titan.”
Smith is the first FAU player to be drafted and
signed by an NFL team. Originally positioned
as a third-string quarterback for the Titans,
Smith has moved into the starting position.
On Nov. 21, Smith played in his first pro game. In an away
game against the Washington Redskins, Smith was put in
the game mid third quarter. On his first play, he threw a 50plus-yard bomb downfield to wide receiver Randy Moss.
The
spectacular
play
was
unfortunately
negated by an offensive pass interference call.

Photo by ralph notaro

Photo by ralph notaro

FIRST TIME IN SPORTS • www.universitypressonline.com • University Press •

FAU student athletes shatter records and turn heads in 2010
Mark Gibson
Staff Reporter
Football and baseball weren’t the only sports that set records and had shining moments in 2010. Here is a look at some of the top individuals from other FAU sports:

Photo courtesy of FAU

Swimming
Sophomore Eszter Bucz broke two school records in Atlanta while also posting NCAA provisionally-qualifying times in three events. She broke Laurence Bensimon’s 23-year-old school record in
the 400-yard individual medley by 1.5 seconds with a fourth-place finish in 4:15.20. She followed
that with a school-record 2:00.76 in the 200-yard individual medley and a career-best 2:14.73 in the
200-yard breaststroke.

Golf

Golf Week magazine’s national poll ranked FAU No. 85 out of the 100 best college golf teams in
the country. Along with the ranking on Aug. 2, 2010, junior Carl McCauley became the second FAU
men’s golfer to be selected to play in the United States Amateur Championship tournament.

Cross country/track
Tennis

Senior Marc Abdelnour won the University of Miami Fall Invitational after winning three of his
four matches in the top singles flight. Abdelnour is now five singles victories away from matching
the school record for career singles wins. He also posted a 2-1 record in the Invitational’s doubles
competition and is tied for fourth place among FAU’s all-time career doubles victories with 46.

Volleyball

In July 2010, Krystena Castro was nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Castro
ended her star-studded volleyball career in the top ten in numerous categories in school history that
didn’t all necessarily involve her main sport, as Castro won a shot put championship in track as a
freshman.

Softball

Along with Krystena Castro, Blair Bodenmiller was also nominated for the NCAA Woman of
the Year Award. Bodenmiller is one of the most decorated student athletes in FAU history as the
all-time leader in home runs, stolen bases and RBIs. She is also a two-time First Team All-Sun Belt
selection.

[Source: www.fau.edu]

Friederike Feil set a new FAU school record in the
3,000-meter-dash while in Germany.

FAU cross country senior runner Friederike Feil set a school record on June 30, 2010, when she
ran a time of 9:52.77 in the 3,000-meter. This was Feil’s fourth school record in cross country and
track.